Koll Black Limba MIDI Toronado – A Player’s Perspective
This was posted by Dave Klausner on thegearpage.net about his Koll guitar. I really love black limba wood and this was a beautiful black limba Koll. I figured instead of just including the pics, I would include Dave’s comments on his Koll to give players out there an idea of what Koll Guitars are like.
Dave Klausner on his Koll Black Limba MIDI Toronado-
I wanted a chance to live with this guitar a bit before posting a review. It’s really so different from all the other guitars I own that it took a while to get my head around it. I have to say, I like it more every time I play it, which is pretty impressive. At any rate, to start with, here are the specs.
Body and neck – Black Limba
Fingerboard – Brazilian Rosewood
Pickups – Lollar P90s
Additional electronics – Graph Tech Ghost/Hexpander piezo and 13 pin
Scale length – 25″
Tuners – Steinberger gearless
Bridge – Wilkinson trem
Acoustically, this instrument is extraordinarily alive. It’s loud, very harmonically complex, and notes ring cleanly and sustain for a long time. It actually came set up a little too low for my tastes. I use .010s, and frankly, when I first got it, they felt a bit like 009s, and at times I had trouble feeling the strings. I tried putting .011s on it, but ended up going back to .010s since I was shredding my fingers on bends. I did jack up the action a bit, which feels better to me (makes it easier to play slide as well). I just like to feel a little more resistance, and the way Saul set it up was too smooth!
I have a lot of amps that I use in the studio, but I have used the same basic rig for close to 25 years, based on a Pearce G1 and a few pedals and rack effects. It’s kind of the great equalizer – pretty much any guitar I plug into it sounds more like the rig than the guitar. Not so with the Koll. It instantly had its own personality, and that took a while to come to grips with, as I could no longer get my “stock” sounds out of it – the ones that had been my “voice” for so long. It’s hard to describe just how much more harmonic content the Koll puts out, but I was sitting there thinking – wow, it has way more lows…and highs…and mids…
I had to back off on a lot of the EQ and gain staging I had, to start to get close to the stuff I was used to. All that extra harmonic content really helped jazz up my “stock” sounds once I had them dialed in, plus I found new sounds that I can’t get at all out of other guitars. I also started finding all sorts of cool new tones, especially playing with both pickups on and messing with the balance between them. Saul also wired in a push/pull switch on the tone knob that puts them out of phase, which opened up even more possibilities.
There was another thread recently, where someone was talking about how different guitars have different dynamics, and the Koll has way more tonal difference between when it’s played softly and when it’s played loudly than any other axe I own. It’s kind of like being used to driving Cadillacs, and sitting behind the wheel of a Porsche. At first, you miss the smooth ride, but you soon begin to appreciate the performance, and how it responds to you. It’s not so much that I have to adjust my technique, as it is that it’s worth adjusting my technique to get the nuances the instrument can deliver.
I also remembered a lesson I learned from Hank Roberts (jazz cello player – with Bill Frisell, etc.). Hank recorded a few CDs at my old studio, and I just loved the sound of his cello, and we got to talking about it at one point. He bought it a long time ago for $25 from an old lady who had it in her closet (years later, he discovered it was an 18th century French instrument – nice find!). It’s rather small bodied, and he was always trying to get this big sound out of it, but couldn’t. Finally, he realized he had to let it be what it was, and embraced its sound instead of trying to impose his sonic vision on it. The result was once he explored its real palette, he found his voice in it.
I had a bit of a similar experience with the Koll, where once I let it be what it wanted to be, instead of trying to make it be more like my other guitars, I discovered it had this great personality, and I’m finding a new voice with it. It can get really mean, but can also be sweet. It can be soft and warm, or have a real sting to it. There are round tones, and angular ones. I play a lot of improv stuff, and the idea was for it to be my “go to” performance guitar, where with the tones available from the magnetic pickups, plus the synth pickup and acoustic output, I could get pretty much whatever I needed out of it on the fly. I think it definitely succeeded on that count.
At any rate, this thread is useless without pics, so here you go. They really don’t do it justice, though. There is a lot of subtle flame that changes depending on the angle you look at it, and the color is a bit richer than it appears in most of the shots (the side angle one probably comes closest).
Koll Black Limba Electric Guitar
Koll Black Limba MIDI Toronado Guitar
Koll Black Limba Guitar
Koll Black Limba Back
Koll Guitar Company – Guitars from Guitar Builder Saul Koll
Saul Koll grew up in southern California just north of Los Angeles in a town called Newhall. He always had an interest in how things were made and what made things work. While other kids were playing sports, Saul was in the garage taking expensive toys apart and gluing the components into new weird new contraptions. At 12 he started to play the guitar and his compulsive tendencies were then directed to learning the instrument. It was about this time that he found a book on guitar making at the library in Redondo Beach. It was Classic Guitar Construction by Irving Sloan. One of the earliest writings on the subject and as it turns out eventually very influential.(Notice how even at the beach, Saul was at the library!) Saul found the book intriguing but beyond his skills at age 12. He continued his guitar studies and school and all the usual teenage stuff.
Saul studied art at San Diego State University and got his Bachelors degree there. He continued his “contraption” making but it was under the guise of sculpture. It was there at the library where Saul found Sloan’s book again. Meanwhile he continued to practice the guitar. Saul played in the highschool jazz ensemble as well as a few rock bands. In 1984 he coformed The Charms, a highly regarded pop rock outfit. Very successful artistically, a profound failure commercially. Nevertheless the band recorded several full -length records, many singles and was featured on a few compilations. The Charms toured a bit as well. The Charms had their last shows in 1995, the same year as the birth of Saul’s first child.
Back to the guitar making part. In college Saul had found that book again and was determined to make a real guitar. He purchase some wood from Ed McGlinchy and began making a guitar on his kitchen table. He also did many repairs there. After one of The Charms first tours, Saul got a job at The World of Strings in Long Beach California. It was here under the tutelage of Jon Peterson and Glen Mers that Saul really began to understand how the instrument was put together. It was there that he began making guitars full time. In 1993 Saul and his partner Denise moved to Portland, Oregon. He continues to build great guitars and does some repair and restoration work at The Twelfth Fret there. Saul and Denise have two beautiful daughters.
The Koll Guitar Company was founded in 1990 in Long Beach California. The very first electric guitar was The Super Stretch, a one-off solidbody made for Bill Jennings from the Charms. In 1993 Koll relocated to Portland OR, and continues to produce the finest musical instruments anywhere. In 1995 Koll Guitar company received it’s first review in a national magazine. With that press, the Glide line was expanded into what we see today. In 1992 the first archtop guitars were made. 2000 brought the Bridgetown series of archtops. Koll guitars will continue to progress and evolve.
Visit the Koll Guitar Company at:
Koll Guitar Company
Koll Guitar Company Arch Top Electric Guitar
Koll Glide Electric Guitar
Koll Custom Electric Guitar
Koll Custom Electric Guitar
